Child of the Hispania
by The Freeman
Summary: Ok... this isn't actually Freespace 2 but there is no Freelancer or even Starlancer category. A Corsair has to go through the rite of passage but has memories of his brother's failure...and demise.


Disclaimer: I don't Freelancer, Digital Anvil do.I think that's all  
  
Child of the Hispania  
  
1: Graveyard of the Innocent  
  
Paulo Collazo sat abruptly upright. The radiation! He was dying! He needed to leave! His eyes stopped staring wildly and came to focus on his bed sheets. The dreams were back. It had been six years since his brother had gone for the rite of passage and never returned. It was now his turn. The rumours he had heard about this were terrible. Some of his friends said there were demons in the clouds that you must fight, others told of how the radiation inside the cloud could kill you in under an hour. The Corsair rite of passage had always been an unknown, an enigma, to children. Once someone went through it at the age of eighteen they were sworn not to talk about it to anybody who had not already passed. To their knowledge, it consisted of flying into the large Rim Nebula cloud that covered the 'north- eastern' part of Omicron Gamma and doing something. Everyone below age speculated on it. The fact that his brother had died to this mysterious ritual did nothing to alleviate Paulo's fears.  
  
Having got dressed in his normal clothes, he climbed down the stairs to the kitchen for some breakfast. A welcome surprise greeted Paulo as he prepared for the usual, dull rations. On the table was an animal that could best be described as a deer. Of course, it was shaded with a green tinge and had spiralling antlers as large as its head. "A Grazella!" he said with a certain degree of surprise ", where did it come from?" This sort of treat was unusual and, most people felt, did more good to your body than the grey sludge that passed as food most of the time. Not to say Paulo was badly fed. He was reasonably tall, well muscled and perhaps a bit thinner than someone of his age would be expected to be. "Your father 'liberated' it during the raid on a Synth Foods convoy last week," came his mother's reply a few moments later ", you're not to touch it though. It is for your celebration tonight". She just had to remind him. This rite was the most pointless thing he could think of. It was useless. Rubbish. Wasteful. A quick shake of his head fixed most of the adolescent anger that was surging in his mind. Then another voice appeared. "Ah, Lizve," came the male voice, referring to Paulo's mother, "and Paulo too. I think I should tell you, boy, that I have been appointed you adjudicator for the rite. Why are you not in your uniform?" "Sorry sir," Paulo muttered to the short Aryan man standing in the doorway. It was a wonder why his family was put on the Hispania and not the Rheinland, although a lot of speculation was made about hushed-up interbreeding with Rheinlanders. Pretending not to be annoyed by Paulo's insolence the man continued. "The rite is dangerous, but recently the number of deaths during it has dropped enormously, so as long as you are observant and fast at the console then you should survive". Paulo didn't want to be lectured like this. He just wanted to get this over and done with so he can join the ranks of Corsair pilots and go off on raid and ambushes and all the other exciting things his father had told him about. The man noticed Paulo's boredom and stopped for a moment. "I think I should introduce myself. My name is Munio Villanueva, of the Family Elders". At this Paulo looked up. The Corsair leaders rarely acted as adjudicators in the rite. "You shall, of course, refer to me as Elder Villanueva," he said sternly. "The council believes that you following in your brother's err. unfortunate footsteps required special attention and, since I know your mother, I was chosen for this task. Now get dressed". Paulo didn't want special attention; he just wanted to get through the rite alive. His thoughts were on the future as he trudged up the stairs.  
  
Fully dressed and ready, Paulo climbed out of the house and into the warm Crete sunshine. The sky was glowing a healthy green from the large Edge Nebula based a few light years from the system. It was a gentle stroll to the landing pad where he could see a ship waiting for him. "Now Paulo," started Villanueva, "this is a Centurion. It is tougher and better equipped than the Legionnaire you have been flying. You will need the extra hull strength inside the cloud, believe me". Paulo wasn't in a mood for joking around. "Yes Elder," he sighed. "The task in the rite is simple. It does not involve shooting monsters or anything like that," Villanueva said, smiling. He clearly did not notice Paulo's disinterest in his jokes. He continued, "you must fly towards the Graveyard of the Innocents and collect something". The name brought up ideas that were thrown around during training. Most children agreed that the Graveyard was where the bodies of those who failed the rite were kept. It scared Paulo to think he may come across his brother's body, floating unprotected in the cloud. "The something you must collect is an artefact. The ones in the Graveyard are very distinguishable from the everyday ones we sell; we believe there is a hidden jumphole that they drift through from some unknown system". "Yes sir," Paulo sighed again. He climbed into the cockpit and pressed the button that launched him from his home planet's surface. "Corsairs green dash one, you are cleared for launch, good luck out there," came the robotic voice through the ship's speakers, programmed to repeat the same message to all who passed through the docking ring. Glancing back at the rapidly shrinking surface Paulo had a sudden thought. 'How did the Elders get Ageira to hand over a set of their precious docking rings'? The image of Elder Villanueva sitting in a room with a group of Libertarian businessmen was something to cheer him up. The flight was fairly uneventful. He received a few hails from fellow Corsairs who wished him good luck when they heard of his task. Nothing else happened until he entered the Edge Nebula cloud. He was relaxing inside the cockpit when suddenly there were asteroids everywhere and the computer was warning, in the same mundane voice as always, that the hull was taking radiation damage. This was to be expected, he had heard all about the nature of Edge Nebula clouds from his father. With the autopilot set to dodge stray boulders Paulo focused his attention on the shrinking number, on a waypoint icon, on his Heads-Up Display, on his cockpit window. When it reached 2 kilometres he saw it. The Graveyard of the Innocents.  
  
There were ships littered across the area. Legionnaires, Centurions and Titans, all wrecked. His brother was out there somewhere and Paulo did not dare to even attempt to search. He focused his mind on the task. Configuring the computer to scan for artefacts he began randomly shooting asteroids in the hope of knocking something loose. This tedious business continued as he drifted through the Graveyard when suddenly the computer announced it had detected a gravitational anomaly. This had to be the jumphole. Turning to face it he suddenly noticed something. The jumphole was rotating as though ships were passing through and yet they were not there. The computer noticed this too and decided it would be best to label these white on the HUD- for neutral. Paulo did not share the same belief and quickly fired the reverse thrusters. Four sets of purplish rings had appeared. In these rings the shape of ships became apparent. They were not human ships. They faced Paulo. They fired. "Shield failed," was the computer's response. 


End file.
